Illamasqua's Make-up Artist Frances creates some beautiful tutorials...

The fabulous make-up artist Frances Cutri of our Sydney City counter has recently done a series of videos for Primped.com.au, Australia’s premier internet beauty destination.

The first was a take on Alex Perry’s simple smoky cat’s eye, and with just a handful of Illamasqua products, Frances transformed the model into a feline goddess.

Frances has been with Illamasqua Australia since launch last year and has been on the team for the last two Myer parades, so she’s a veteran member of staff.

Frances grew up in Sydney and started her working life as a hairdresser, but six years ago, after starting to do more makeup in the salon, she quickly realized that make-up was her passion. “It’s more creative and more expressive than hair, and you can change it as often as you like” she explains. “You can create a completely new look, and people feel their most confident when their face looks good”.

When she found out about Illamasqua she immediately wanted to work here, as “At Illamasqua, there are no rules about how to do make-up. You can express yourself any way that you want!”

At the moment she is loving Cream Pigment in Mould as the base for a smoky eye, and mixing it with red shadow and lots of black eyeliner to give a deeper, jewel-toned twist on the traditional smoky eye. “Great for winter!”

Cream Pigment in Mould

Lipstick in Pristine

She’s also finding lots of customers are embracing very dark lipcolours, with Lipstick in Pristine, a pure black, as the surprise winner this season. For nails for Frances at the moment it’s all about Nail Varnish in Throb, the heart-stopping red, and overall she’s into lots of contouring with Powder Blusher in Disobey, a lighter brow, a blank eyelid and lots of black eyeliner. Combined with a deep Lipstick such as Pristine, Disciple (a dark navy), or Box, it’s a look that’s dramatic yet gorgeous.

Lipstick in Box

She says of Primped “I really enjoyed doing the film as one of the main things I love about make-up is educating people, so it’s wonderful to know that I can be educating thousands of people just through that one video.”